The present application relates generally to fasteners and more particularly to an automotive vehicle trim retainer.
Conventional polymeric fasteners have been used in the automotive industry to retain interior trim panels to sheet metal structure. Examples of such traditional fasteners are disclosed in the following U.S. Pat. No. 5,592,719 entitled “Fastening Clip” which issued to Eto et al. on Jan. 14, 1997; U.S. Pat. No. 5,573,362 entitled “Fastener Including Elastic Legs for Retaining the Fastener in a Mounting Hole” which issued to Asami et al. on Nov. 12, 1996; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,301,396 entitled “Fastener Assembly with Compression Member” which issued to Benoit on Apr. 12, 1994; all of which are incorporated by reference herein. Known fasteners such as these have unsuccessfully attempted to provide desirable insertion versus extraction forces while also achieving self-centering and over-compression resistance. Moreover, many conventional polymeric fasteners are not acceptably reusable after removal from the often sharp, sheet metal hole edges.